Wall Street Propaganda: Blame Social Security
The President’s Fiscal Commission is holding its second pubic meeting today and when commission members say “everything is in the table,” the biggest things they are talking about are Social Security and Medicare.
The commission was created by an Executive Order from President Obama in February after a move to create a commission with much broader powers failed in the Senate. The current commission’s charge is to propose ways to address the nation’s growing debt. The 18-member commission will meet throughout the year and then present its recommendations to Obama after the fall elections. (For more information, visit Social Security Works.)
Conservative groups and Wall Street insiders, says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR),
are spending more than $1 billion dollars to convince the public that slashing these programs [Social Security and Medicare] is the only way to protect our children and grandchildren from poverty.
Proposed Commission Is Fast Track to Cutting Social Security, Medicare
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Next week, the U.S. Senate will vote on legislation that a few years down the road could slash Social Security and Medicare benefits without any further debate or consideration by Congress.
The so-called Entitlement Reform Commission is the creation of Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who plan to offer an amendment to create the commission to debt ceiling legislation.
This special appointed commission would supposedly create a blueprint to reduce the deficit by cutting vital government programs, including Social Security and Medicare. But under the Gregg-Conrad scheme, the panel’s recommendation would be “fast tracked” with no amendments allowed, just an up-or-down vote, and that, says the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), is a process
designed to minimize Congress’ role in making these vital decisions. Or as some might argue, to provide political cover for those decisions.
